Red Tails Fly Over Allensworth

 

Early on the morning of February 8^th, ten private airplanes from throughout California; Hayward, Watsonville, Compton, Whiteman, Cable, and Hawthorne will descend on the Delano Municipal Airport.  They will receive a short safety briefing and pre-flight review then remount their planes and taxi to runway 32.  After receiving clearance from the tower they will takeoff one after the other and head north.

Upon receiving the signal from the ground crew, the pilots will turn south, then lineup in a formation. The lead pilot gives the command “Tighten Up, Straighten Up and Fly Right” and the formation drops down to 1,000 ft as they fly over the Black History Month celebration at Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park. 

The pilots are members of the California Red Tails, one of fourteen Black Pilots of America chapters. The Black Pilots of America is a non-profit flying organization that encourages under privileged youth to enter the field of aviation. The California Red Tails are named after 332^nd fighter group, the African American fighter pilots that escorted bombers during World War Two. They are better known as the Tuskegee Airmen because they were trained at Tuskegee, Alabama. 

The campground at Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park is named after Tuskegee Airmen Lieutenant Colonel John "Mr. Death" L. Whitehead, Jr.,  who served in World War Two, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.